St Petersburg wins tourism Oscar, Barcelona takes conference destination prize

EUROPE – Russia’s cultural capital St Petersburg was declared the winner of the 2015 World Travel Awards Europe’s Leading Destination. CEO of the city’s convention bureau Anna Chetvergova picked up the prize on behalf of St Petersburg at the ceremony on 5 September on the island of Sardinia at the Forte Village Resort. The city on the River Neva had never previously received a World Travel Award and joins famous tourism centres as London, Istanbul, and Edinburgh in the hall of fame. Voting was available online at the Awards’ official website. Votes cast by travel trade professional counted as two points, and those by the public as one. The Forte Village Resort picked up four awards and was named as the best resort in Italy and Europe. The WTA named Europe’s Leading Meetings & Conference Destination as Barcelona and the continent’s Leading Meetings & Conference Centre as ICC Berlin. Lufthansa was named Leading Airline in Europe for a fifth consecutive year. The World Travel Awards were launched in 1993 and Lorenzo Giannuzzi, chief executive and GM of the host venue, Forte Village, said: “It was a great pleasure for Forte Village to host the World Travel Awards Europe Gala Ceremony 2015.” All the winners from the Europe Gala Ceremony will now move forward to the WTA Grand Final at Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort, El Jadida, Morocco, on 12 December.